Get Started with Oracle GraalVM Container Images

Oracle GraalVM container images are available in Oracle Container Registry (OCR) under the GraalVM Free Terms and Conditions (GFTC) license.

The following images are available:

Image Name Description
jdk-ee A compact image containing the Oracle GraalVM JDK
native-image-ee A compact image containing the Oracle GraalVM native-image utility and JDK
enterprise Provides the Oracle GraalVM JDK along with the gu (Graal Updater) utility to enable installation of additional features
nodejs-ee Includes the Node.js runtime and the Oracle GraalVM JDK

Images Tagging Structure and Availability

Both repositories provide container images for AMD64 and AArch64 processor architectures, with a choice of Oracle Linux versions 7, 8, or 9.

Oracle GraalVM is installed in /usr/lib64/graalvm/graalvm-java<$FeatureVersion> where <$FeatureVersion> is 17, 20, etc. For instance, Oracle GraalVM for JDK 17 is installed in /usr/lib64/graalvm/graalvm-java17. All binaries, including java, javac, native-image, and other binaries are available as global commands via the alternatives command.

Tags

Each repository provides multiple tags that let you choose the level of stability you need including the Java version, build number, and the Oracle Linux version. Oracle GraalVM image tags use the following naming convention:

$version[-muslib(for native image only)][-$platform][-$buildnumber]

The following tags are listed from the most-specific tag (at the top) to the least-specific tag (at the bottom). The most-specific tag is unique and always points to the same image, while the less-specific tags point to newer image variants over time.

17.0.8-ol9-20230904
17.0.8-ol9
17.0.8
17-ol9
17

The structure of {IMAGE_TAG} is:

{OS_VERSION}-java{JAVA_VERSION}-{MAJOR_RELEASE}.{MINOR_RELEASE}.{PATCH_RELEASE}-b{BUILD_NUMBER}

The structure is designed to allow references with different levels of specificity. The minimum valid image tag is java{JAVA_VERSION}-{MAJOR_RELEASE}. For example, the following are all valid image tags:

java17-22
java17-22.3
java17-22.3.0
java17-22.3.0-b1
ol8-java17-22.3.1-b2

It is recommended you use the most specific tag, for example, ol8-java17-22.3.1 or ol8-java17-22.3.1-b1, where -b1 indicates that the image required a patch and this specific build will never change.

Image tags that are not fully specified, for example, java17-22, are not stable and will change over time to refer to the latest available Oracle GraalVM 22.x release. Using latest (or no tag) will always get the latest release available for a given image, the latest OS, the latest Java version, and the latest GraalVM version.

Get Started

To pull an Oracle GraalVM image from the Oracle Container Registry, you are required to accept the license agreement.

  1. Go to Oracle Container Registry and click the “GraalVM” tile. You are redirected to a page describing the GraalVM repositories.

  2. Click on an image repository. For example, if you need a compact container image with the JDK, click the jdk-ee link.

  3. Click Sign In. This takes you to the Oracle Single Sign-on page.

  4. Sign in with an Oracle account. If you do not have an existing Oracle account, you can create one.

  5. Once you have signed in you are presented with a license to review. Click Continue and then click Accept to accept the license and proceed.

  6. Check and accept the license.

  7. Open a terminal window and login to Oracle Container Registry using your Oracle account, as follows:

     docker login container-registry.oracle.com
 Username: <oracle sso username>
 Password: <oracle sso password>
 Login successful.

  8. Pull the image with the docker pull command. Use the latest tag or a specific tag from the list of tags displayed on the page. For example:

     docker pull container-registry.oracle.com/graalvm/jdk-ee:latest 
 latest: Pulling from graalvm/jdk-ee
 58c4eaffce77: Pull complete 
 8800a93aa49d: Pull complete 
 da2734fc865b: Pull complete 
 Digest: sha256:ccde822a1119da5f95e97b331632e6219b0ae29f81f516d1c0b9787
 Status: Downloaded newer image for container-registry.oracle.com/graalvm/jdk-ee:latest
 container-registry.oracle.com/graalvm/jdk-ee:latest

  9. Start a container from the jdk-ee image and enter the bash session with the following run command:

     docker run -it --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash container-registry.oracle.com/graalvm/native-image:17

  10. Check the version of Oracle GraalVM and its storage location by running the env command:

    bash-5.1# env

    The output message includes the value of JAVA_HOME showing the version of installed Oracle GraalVM and the location where it is installed.

  11. Check the contents of the Oracle GraalVM bin directory:

    bash-5.1# ls /usr/lib64/graalvm/graalvm22-ee-java17/bin

  12. Check the Java version by running the following command:

    bash-5.1# java -version

    The output printed contains the information about the runtime environment and its version number.

If you pull a native-image-ee image, you can start a container and enter the session from the native-image-ee image immediately:

docker run -it --rm container-registry.oracle.com/graalvm/native-image-ee:latest bash

Follow steps 10-12 above to check the installed version and the location of Oracle GraalVM. The bin directory, in this case, includes java and native-image launchers. Check the versions:

native-image --version

java -version

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